Systems and methods for providing timely advertising to portable devices

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for displaying advertisements on a portable device that utilizes an Activity-based operating system are described. The method includes receiving an indication that an Activity is being transitioned away from, and determining whether or not the Activity is finishing. Upon determining that the Activity is finishing, the method includes causing an advertisement display routine to be executed immediately, otherwise submitting the advertisement display routine into a processing queue to be executed subsequently. The advertisement display routine displays the advertisement only upon determining that the state of the Activity and the state of the portable device are characterized by one or more predetermined conditions.

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S.provisional application No. 61/646,768 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORPROVIDING EVENT-TRIGGERED ADVERTISING TO PORTABLE DEVICES,” filed on May14, 2012, the content of which is hereby expressly incorporated byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to timely display ofadvertising on portable devices based on determining that an Activitycomponent of an application is finishing execution. More particularly,but not exclusively, the present disclosure relates to systems andmethods for detecting whether or not an Activity is finishing at aportable device and causing an advertisement display routine to beexecuted immediately if the Activity is determined to be finishing orotherwise submitting the advertisement display routine into a processingqueue to be executed subsequently.

BACKGROUND

Advertising is by its nature disruptive. Very few people willvoluntarily choose to be advertised to. People are typically angered bydisruption that is caused by receiving pop-up advertisements and thelike. Pop-up advertisements are typically delivered using a push modelwhere a server remote from a user device forces advertising on the userdevice. Typically, the remote server is not aware of activities that theuser is involved with on the user device.

Mobile advertising systems have used the push model, whereby someexternal source sends messages which contain advertising-relatedinformation to a handset, and an agent on the handset consumes thesemessages and renders an advertisement without concern of what the useris doing. For this reason and others, mobile advertising has yet to growinto its full potential.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments of the teachings disclosed herein are shown in thedrawings summarized below. These and other embodiments are more fullydescribed in the Detailed Description section. It is to be understood,however, that there is no intention to limit the claims to the formsdescribed in this Summary or in the Detailed Description. One skilled inthe art can recognize that there are numerous modifications, equivalentsand alternative constructions that fall within the spirit and scope ofthe disclosed teachings as expressed in the claims.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to a system and method fordisplaying advertisements on a portable device that utilizes anActivity-based operating system. The inventive systems and methodsinclude receiving an indication that an Activity is being transitionedaway from, and determining whether or not the Activity is finishing.Upon determining that the Activity is finishing, an advertisementdisplay routine is caused to be executed immediately, otherwise theadvertisement display routine is submitted into a processing queue to beexecuted subsequently. The advertisement display routine displays theadvertisement only upon determining that the state of the Activity andthe state of the portable device are characterized by one or morepredetermined conditions.

One aspect in accordance with the disclosure is a method of displayingan advertisement on a display screen of a communication device, wherethe communication device includes a processor and a memory includingprogram code. The method of this aspect includes receiving an indicationof a state transition of a first Activity of an application programbeing executed on the processor, and executing, by the processor and inresponse to the indication, the program code in order to determinewhether the first Activity is finishing; and display, upon determiningthe first Activity is finishing, the advertisement upon determining thatat least one of the following conditions exists: (a) a second Activityof the application program is not being invoked, (b) the communicationdevice is not involved in a call, (c) the display screen is not locked,and (d) the first Activity is a root Activity or is in a backgroundstate.

In another aspect in accordance with the disclosure, a communicationdevice includes a processor, a display screen, and a memory coupled tothe processor, the memory containing program code. When executed by theprocessor, the program code causes the processor to receive anindication of a state transition of a first Activity of an applicationprogram being executed on the processor, and execute, in response to theindication, the program code in order to determine whether the firstActivity is finishing, and display, upon determining the first Activityis finishing, the advertisement upon determining that at least one ofthe following conditions exists: (a) a second Activity of theapplication program is not being invoked, (b) the communication deviceis not involved in a call, (c) the display screen is not locked, and (d)the first Activity is a root Activity or is in a background state.

In another aspect in accordance with the disclosure, a non-transientcomputer readable medium stores program code which, when executed by aprocessor, causes the processor to receive an indication of a statetransition of a first Activity of an application program being executedon the processor, and execute, in response to the indication, theprogram code in order to determine whether the first Activity isfinishing; and display, upon determining the first Activity isfinishing, the advertisement upon determining that at least one of thefollowing conditions exists: (a) a second Activity of the applicationprogram is not being invoked, (b) the communication device is notinvolved in a call, (c) the display screen is not locked, and (d) thefirst Activity is a root Activity or is in a background state.

In yet another aspect in accordance with the disclosure, anon-transitory computer readable medium stores computer program code forimplementing a method of displaying an advertisement on a communicationdevice. The communication device includes a processor and a userinterface. The computer program code includes program code for receivingan indication of a state transition of an Activity of an applicationprogram being executed by the processor, program code for determiningwhether the Activity is finishing, and program code for initiating,based upon the determining, display of the advertisement upon the userinterface provided that a state of the Activity and a state of thecommunication device are characterized by one or more predeterminedconditions.

As previously stated, the above-described embodiments andimplementations are for illustration purposes only. Numerous otherembodiments, implementations, and details of the invention are easilyrecognized by those of skill in the art from the following descriptionsand claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the nature and objects of variousembodiments of the invention, reference should be made to the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system on which may be implemented variousembodiments of methods in accordance with the disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a device configuration for a portable device on whichmay be implemented various embodiments of systems and methods inaccordance with the disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a host system configuration on which may beimplemented various embodiments of systems and methods in accordancewith the disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process for facilitating delivery ofinformation to a portable device in accordance with the disclosure;

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate an exemplary process for requesting deliveryof information to a portable device in accordance with the disclosure;

FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C illustrate an exemplary process for displayingadvertisements on a communication device in accordance with thedisclosure; and

FIG. 7 illustrates another exemplary process for displayingadvertisements on a communication device in accordance with thedisclosure.

In the appended figures, similar components and/or features may have thesame reference label. Further, various components of the same type maybe distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a secondlabel that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the firstreference label is used in the specification, the description isapplicable to any one of the similar components having the same firstreference label irrespective of the second reference label.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, people are usually annoyed and/or angered bydisruption of activity on computers, smart phones, tablets and the like.It has been found that an inverse relationship exists between the extentof an advertisement's disruptiveness and a user's willingness to engageit. Tests of user responsiveness bear this out. These tests have shownthat a host system utilizing mobile advertising technology implementinga mechanism whereby mobile advertisements are rendered on behalf of agiven application, but outside that application's runtime context areresponded to more favorably than other forms of mobile advertising.Systems and methods in accordance with the disclosure identify triggersthat ensure that advertising, including rich media advertisements, isrendered when the user completes an activity or otherwise interacts withthe system in a way that leaves a window of non-disruptive time. Whatthese triggers are, with what frequency they are leveraged, and whichadvertising sources to use for content are fully customizable, oftenfrom a centralized, cloud-based mechanism (referred to herein as a hostsystem), thereby allowing real-time modification of these parametersacross entire user bases.

On the client side, this method of mobile advertising can beaccomplished by the presence of an intelligent background agent. In oneembodiment, such an agent could comprise a persistent system servicewhich monitors the system for arbitrarily defined triggering events, andtakes appropriate action to communicate with advertising providers. Thebackground agent can be configured locally by default configurationparameters and/or remotely by the host system. This is a pulladvertising model where the mobile device requests content from the hostsystem, as opposed to a push model where the host system forces contenton the mobile device.

It is believed that a person is psychologically more receptive toreceiving unexpected content, including advertising content, if theadvertising content is displayed in a non-disruptive manner. Thisapproach has been shown by testing to achieve click-through rates (astandard measure of mobile and internet advertising's effectiveness)significantly higher than the industry standard.

In a typical embodiment, a host processing system (also denoted hereinas a “host system” for brevity) includes one or more servers (alsodenoted herein as “host servers” configured to provide access toadvertisement information from a myriad of sources, including brick andmortar retailers and wholesalers, online retail website or advertisingservices, and, in some embodiments, store this information in one ormore databases in or associated with the host processing system. Thehost system may also be configured to interact with the users' portabledevices to facilitate transfer of advertisements in a more pleasingfashion.

In addition, the host processing system may be configured to allow thehost system or source to configure when information is displayed on aportable device. Portable or mobile devices may be configured inconjunction with a client application to facilitate the display of mediacontent, such as by displaying an advertisement for a device action suchas terminating a call.

In an exemplary embodiment, a user is provided with an applicationprogram (also denoted herein as a “client application”) that may beinstalled on the user's portable device to facilitate downloading ofmedia content (e.g., advertisements). The client application can beprogrammable with various configuration parameters. The configurationparameters can be used to determine which events can cause the clientapplication to request an advertisement for display, how frequentlyadvertisements can be displayed, which activities being performed afterthe event but prior to display of an advertisement can prevent displayof the advertisement, etc.

By way of example, a user may be in the middle of a voice call while theclient application is monitoring the operating system. When the voicecall is ended, the operating system produces an event signal indicatingthe call termination event and this signal is detected by the clientapplication. Assuming the client application is programmed to request anadvertisement after detecting a call termination event, the clientapplication sends an advertisement request message to a remote system(e.g., an advertisement source system or the host system). The hostsystem, in response to receiving the request message, retrieves acurrent advertisement from the database and communicates theadvertisement to the client application on the portable device. Theclient application then causes the operating system to display theadvertisement on a display of the portable device.

In contrast to the event-based advertising embodiment whereadvertisements are requested upon an event being detected via a signalfrom the operating system (as described in reference to FIGS. 4, 5A and5B below), another embodiment displays advertisements upon determiningwhen an Activity is finishing. As used herein, an Activity is anapplication component that provides a screen with which users caninteract in order to do something, such as dial the phone, take a photo,send an email, or view a map. Each Activity is given a window in whichto draw its user interface. One operating system that uses Activities isthe Android® operating system. Unlike triggering events, there is nodirect indication provided by the operating system that an Activity isfinishing. An indirect method of determining when an Activity isfinishing is described below in reference to FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C and 7.This indirect method also utilizes pre-fetching of advertisements sincethe Android® operating system has built-in delays that make requestingan advertisement after an Activity has finished cumbersome.

The systems and methods disclosed herein are applicable to a wide rangeof applications related to input, display, storage, processing,transmission, delivery, and other aspects of mobile advertising systems.For purposes of explanation, the following description is provided withreference to specific nomenclature and implementation details, typicallyin the context of a portable device in the form of a cellular or mobilephone; however, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatspecific details described are not required in order to practice theinvention, and that other embodiments in keeping with the spirit andscope of the present invention are possible and fully contemplatedherein.

Content Sources and Content Selection and Provision

Attention is now directed to FIG. 1, which illustrates a system 100 onwhich may be implemented embodiments of the present invention. As shownin FIG. 1, content may originate from sources such as an ABCManufacturing server 160-1 (i.e., a brick and mortar enterprise), anonline retailer server 160-2 (i.e., a server associated with a website)or an advertising service server 160-3, or any of many other sites thatcontain advertisement information, public service announcements and/orother timely information. In addition to those shown in FIG. 1, it willbe apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other sources ofadvertising content are available and other means, in addition to theInternet and Cellular/Telephony networks, may be employed to providesuch content. Accordingly, the above list of advertising content sourcesis only intended to be representative, not limiting.

Communications Between Devices and Systems

System 100 includes one or more portable or mobile devices 110 (alsodenoted herein for brevity as “devices 110”) such as cellular phones,tablet computers, PDAs, Wi-Fi (802.11) devices or other portabledevices. It is further noted that, in some embodiments, the device neednot necessarily be portable and the functionality herein may beimplemented on more stationary devices such as desktop or notebookcomputers or other types of fixed devices. In addition, portable devicesas described herein may include other types of devices that are mobilebut not necessarily portable.

In addition to devices 110, system 100 may include one or more computers120 such as desktop computers, portable or notebook computers or otherdevices or systems incorporating computer functionality along with wiredor wireless network connectivity. For example, embodiments of thepresent invention may be implemented on various types of embeddeddevices or Internet appliance devices or similar types of devices.

System 100 further includes a host processing system 140 (also denotedherein as “host system 140”) comprising one or more servers as well asother associated computer and data processing hardware (not shown inFIG. 1) such as networking equipment, displays, monitors, I/O devices orother computer or data communication systems, hardware and/or software.In an exemplary embodiment, host system 140 may be provided by oroperated by an associated host services company or host servicessupplier.

As noted previously, host system 140 includes one or more servers thatinclude one or more databases 390 (as shown in FIG. 3) either internalor external to the servers 370. These databases may be used to storeadvertisements and data such as is further described below. Host system140 may also include one or more operating systems 362 associated withthe servers, as well as one or more application programs to implementthe various host service functionality as is described further herein.Host system 140 may be implemented at a centralized physical locationsuch as a network connected server farm or other similar facility and/ormay comprise a plurality of distributed servers connected by any of avariety of networking connections at different physical locations.

Devices 110 and computers 120 (also denoted collectively herein asdevices 110 and 120 for brevity) are typically configured to connect toeach other and/or to host system 140 through network 130 as shown inFIG. 1. Network 130 may include wired or wireless networking elementssuch as Ethernet, LAN technologies, telephony networks such as POTSphone networks, cellular networks, data networks, or other telephonynetworks as well as Wi-Fi or Wi-Max networks, other wired or wirelessInternet network connections and/or other networks as are known ordeveloped in the art. These connections may be facilitated by one ormore client applications 264 (as shown in FIG. 2) running on devices 110or 120 as well as one or more host system applications 364 running onone or more host system servers 370 included in host system 140, alongwith one more network interfaces 342 and/or other networking hardwareand/or software as is known or developed in the art (not shown).

In some embodiments, host system 140 is further configured to provide anetwork connection through the Internet 150 to one or more advertisementsource sites 160, such as the brick and mortar enterprise server 160-1,the online retailer server 160-2, the advertising service server 160-3or similar sources. These connections may be facilitated by one or moreapplication programs 364 running on host system 140.

As discussed above, a “pull” method, as is known in the art, is used todeliver advertisements to the devices 110 or 120. The devices 110 and120 can request an advertisement from one or more advertisement sourcesites 160, such as the brick and mortar enterprise server 160-1, theonline retailer server 160-2, the advertising service server 160-3 orsimilar sources. The network 130 is coupled to the Internet 150 suchthat the requests can be routed from the devices 110 and 120 to theadvertisement source sites 160. In some embodiments, an advertisement isrequested by devices 110 or 120 from the host system 140. Theadvertisements can be requested after a trigger event has been detected.An advertisement is then pulled from either one of the advertisementsources 160 or the host system 140, as determined by configurationparameters as described herein (as used herein, “advertisement sourcesystem” refers to either the host system 140 or one of the advertisementsources 160). For example, when device 110 is a cell phone, when thecell phone terminates a call or performs some other trigger event, theclient application 264 will create an advertisement request message,which is then sent to an advertisement source. The request message maycontain a user identifier, an indication of the type of event, anindication of the type of device, etc. The advertisement source systemthen retrieves a suitable advertisement from one of several databases.The advertisement source system then sends the selected advertisement tothe device 110 or 120 via the network 130. The client applicationdetermines if it is still a proper time (as determined by severalfactors discussed below) to display the advertisement. If it is still aproper time, the client application 264 causes the device 110 or 120 todisplay the advertisement. The client application 264 may send anothermessage to the advertisement source system indicating whether or not theadvertisement was displayed.

Client Application

In one aspect, the user may be provided with a client application orapplications 264, as shown in FIG. 2 (also denoted herein as a “client”for purposes of brevity) that may be installed on the user's device 110.For example, the user may be provided with a download of the clientapplication 264 from a host system 140 or affiliated web site. Theclient application 264 may be installed on a ROM (read only memory) 230at a factory, thereby negating the need for the user to download theclient 264. Alternately, the user may be supplied with the clientapplication 264 on a computer media such as a CD or DVD, a thumb drive,or via other media known or developed in the art. Once the userdownloads or otherwise obtains the client application 264 and installsthe client application 264 on the user's device 110, the user may thenaccess the host system 140 and associated host service and advertisingsource systems to implement the functionality described herein. Theclient application 264 is configured to determine when operating system262 performs one of the trigger events and then transfers an advertisingrequest message to the advertising source system and receives anadvertisement.

For example, in some embodiments, the client application 264 is a gameapplication, a video application or any other type of application thatthe user would use on the mobile device 110 and the functionalitydescribed herein is integrated into the application. In otherembodiments, the client application 264 may be utilized by third partyapplication developers and/or advertising services using what is knownin the art as a software development kit or SDK. A library of functionsof the SDK could be stored in a data module 268 to provide the pulladvertising functionality of the client application 264 to a third partyapplications so as to perform the methods discussed herein. When theclient application is part of an SDK (such as with the processes 400 and500 discussed below) that is a service installed on the portable device110, an application such as a game that utilizes the client application264 of the SDK could be installed on the device 110 and the clientapplication 264 would automatically be installed as a separate entity ifthe client application 264 were not already installed. There could bemultiple applications on the device 110 that use the client application264.

In cases where the client application 264 is part of an SDK on thedevice 110, upon installation of a new application that utilizes theclient application 264, the new application registers with the clientapplication 264. Registration can include the new application providinga unique identifier to the client application 264 such that the clientapplication 264 knows what type of application the new application is.Upon installation of the new application, the client application 264informs the host system 140 that the new application is installed on thedevice 110 and is registered with the client application 264.

FIG. 2 illustrates additional details of a typical configuration of aportable device 110 with example device elements that may be used toimplement embodiments of the systems and methods in accordance with thedisclosure. As shown in FIG. 2, device 110 may include one or moreprocessors (CPUs) 210, which are typically one or more specialized ordedicated portable device microprocessors or microcontrollers, aninput/output device module 220 (e.g., a user interface) configured toallow users to input and output information and interact withapplications installed on the device 110, such as the client application264, as well as transfer and receive advertising data, one or more readonly memory (ROM) devices 230 or equivalents to provide non-volatilestorage of data and/or application or operating system programs, one ormore display modules 250, such as an LCD or equivalent display device,as well as one or more memory spaces 260. Other modules, such asoptional GPS module 225 for providing position or location informationmay also be included.

The input/output device module 220, in this example, includes a Homebutton 222 and a Back button 224. The user can exit an Activity bypressing either the Home button 222 or the Back button 224. The Homebutton 222 and the Back button 224 can be physical buttons or virtualbuttons (e.g., on a touch sensitive display 250). When the user pressesthe Home button 222, the current Activity is hidden and the display 250displays a default or Home image. When the Back button 224 is pressed,the current Activity is exited and the display is returned to thedisplay that was being displayed prior to the current Activity.

Memory space 260 may comprise DRAM, SRAM, FLASH, hard disk drives orother memory storage devices configured to store and access operatingsystems 262, client application programs 264 and/or data 268. Data 268may include information such as advertisements received from anadvertising source system. The advertisements may be in the form ofimages/photos, videos, music content, or other types of data. Inparticular, memory space 260 may include one or more client applications264 stored in the memory space 260 for execution on the CPU 210 toperform the various client-side functionality described herein,including displaying and storing advertisements, or other data orinformation, as well as interacting with host system 140 and advertisingsources 160.

FIG. 3 illustrates additional details of one example of a host system140 with example device elements that may be used to implementembodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, host system140 may include one or more processors (CPUs) 310, an input/outputdevice module 320 configured to allow users to input and outputinformation and interact with the host system 140 as well as transferand receive data, one or more read only memory (ROM) devices 330 orequivalents to provide non-volatile storage of data and/or programs, oneor more display modules 350 such as a computer monitor or other displaydevice, one or more network connections 340 and associated networkinterfaces 342 configured to allow host system 140 to connect to othersystems, servers and/or portable devices, including other elements ofsystem 140 in embodiments where the servers or other components aredistributed at other physical locations, as well as one or more memoryspaces 360 and one or more databases 390. Database(s) 390 may be furtherdivided or distributed as one or more sub-databases 390 a-390 n, withthe sub-databases storing feature or function specific informationassociated with a particular feature or function. The various componentsshown in FIG. 3 may be incorporated in one or more physical servers 370comprising part of host system 140. It is noted that the variouscomponents shown in FIG. 3, including database 390, are typicallyincluded as part of server(s) 370, however, they may be external toserver(s) 370 in some embodiments. For example, in some embodimentsdatabase(s) 390 may be external to server(s) 370 and may comprise partof a separate database server system or networked database system.

Memory space 360 may comprise DRAM, SRAM, FLASH, hard disk drives orother memory storage devices, such as media drives 380, configured tostore operating systems, application programs and/or data, and memoryspace 360 may be shared with, distributed with or overlap with thememory storage capacity of database 390. In some embodiments, memoryspace 360 may include database 390 or in some embodiments database 390may include data 368 as shown in memory space 360.

Data stored in memory space 360 and/or database 390 may includeinformation such as advertising source system information,advertisements, images/photos, videos, music content, or other types ofdata. In particular, memory space 360 may include a host systemapplication or applications 364 stored in the memory space for executionon CPU 310 to perform the various host-side functions described herein.

Host System Server Transmitting Information to Clients

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process 400 for facilitating delivery ofinformation to a portable device in accordance with the disclosure. Theprocess 400 can involve the host system 140 and one or more advertisingsources 160 communicating with the portable device 110 via one or morewired and/or wireless communication channels. The process 400 is usedwith embodiments where client application 264 is part of an SDK that isa service installed on the portable device 110. At stage 410, the hostsystem 140 communicates an advertising application, such as the clientapplication 264 of FIG. 2, to the portable device 110. Alternatively,the client application 264 could be previously stored in a memory of theportable device 110 and stage 410 could be omitted from the process 400.

At stage 414, the host system 140 communicates configuration parametersto the portable device 110. The configuration parameters can becommunicated to the portable device 110 in response to receiving aconfiguration update request from the portable device 110. Such anupdate request can be made upon first receiving a registration messagefrom the client application 264 with the host system 140 at stage 418,for example. In addition, an update request could be receivedperiodically from the portable device 110 in order to change, forexample, which trigger events result in an advertisement being requestedby the portable device 110, which advertising source systems to utilizefor advertisements and how frequently advertisements can be displayed.

At stage 418, the host system 140 receives a registration message fromthe client application 264 installed on the portable device 110. Theregistration message can include information which describes thecapabilities of the device 110 as well as other data associated with theportable device 110 and/or the client application 264. For example, oneof the portable device 110 capabilities may include display capabilities(number of pixels, video graphics capability, audio capability, etc.)The client application 264 may also tell the host system 140 which eventtriggers the operating system 262 is capable of reporting to the clientapplication. For instance, trigger events reported by the operatingsystem 262 may include voice call initiation and termination, textmessage initiation and termination, pausing of a video game application,termination of any type of interactive application, etc.

Additionally, the client 264 may specify picture sizes and formats itwants to receive from the host system 140, such as sizes and formatsbased on the capabilities of the device 110 and/or based on otherparameters such as memory capacity, download connection capacity orcosts, or other parameters. The host system 140 receives thisinformation from the client 264, and, in response, in embodiments wherethe host system delivers advertisements, the host system 140 formats theadvertising data specifically for each client based on the client'srequest and portable device 110 capabilities.

At stage 422, the advertising source system (e.g., either the hostsystem 140 or one of the advertising sources 160 as determined by theconfiguration parameters) receives an advertisement request message fromthe client application 264 running on the portable device 110. Theadvertisement request message may be in response to any of the triggerevents that the operating system 262 reports to the client application264. In addition, the client application 264 can be programmed by thehost system 140 via the configuration parameters communicated at stage414. The advertising request message can include an identifier of theportable device 110 and/or an identity of a user of the portable device110. The advertising request message can also include an indication ofthe trigger event that resulted in the request message beingcommunicated.

Upon receiving the advertising request message, the advertising sourcesystem determines, at decision block 426, if there are any suitableadvertisements to be communicated to the portable device 110.Suitability of the advertisements may be determined based on an identityof the user, a time of day, a geographic location of the portabledevice, demographics of the user, etc. If no suitable advertisement isidentified at the decision block 426, the process 400 returns to stage422 to receive another advertisement request message.

If a suitable advertisement is identified at the decision block 426, theprocess 400 continues to stage 430 where the advertising source systemselects one of the suitable advertisements and communicates the selectedadvertisement via the network interface 342 to the portable device 110to be displayed by the client application 264. The advertisement can beconfigured based on properties of the portable device 110 such as, forexample, display size, video graphics capability, audio capability, etc.

At stage 434, the host system 140 receives an indication, from theportable device 110 via the network interface, of whether or not theadvertisement was displayed on the portable device 110. In some cases,the user of the portable device may initiate a new Activity prior to theadvertisement being communicated to the portable device 110. In thesecases, the client application 264 may determine that it is not asuitable time to display the advertisement because, for example, theadvertisement may be a nuisance to the user performing the new Activity.For example, if the user initiates another voice call immediately afterterminating one call, this may be determined, based on the configurationparameters, to not be a proper time to display an advertisement. If anadvertisement was displayed, the indication received at stage 434 mayindicate which advertisement was displayed, which portable device it wasdisplayed on and any user click-throughs or other interaction with theadvertisement.

At stage 438, the host system 140 stores an indication in the database390 of the advertisement that was displayed. In addition, the hostsystem 140 may also store information indicative of user interactionwith the advertisement as well as an identity of the user or anidentifier of the portable device.

The process 400 is exemplary only and not limiting. The process 400 canbe altered, e.g., by having stages added, removed or rearranged. Stillother alterations to the process 400 as shown and described arepossible.

Receiving Advertisement Information on the Portable Device

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate an exemplary process 500 for requestingdelivery of information to the portable device 110 in accordance withthe disclosure. As with process 400, the process 500 is used withembodiments where the client application 264 is part of an SDK that is aservice installed on the portable device 110. After a user has installedthe client application 264 on the portable device 110, they can receiveadvertisement information in a number of ways. Examples are furtherdescribed below. The process 500 will be described in reference to theportable device 110 (e.g., using the processor 210) and the host system140, but other devices, portable and non-portable, for example, can beused.

At stage 510, the portable device 110 receives the client application264 and stores the client application 264 in the memory 260. The clientapplication 264 can be received over a wireless or wired connection viaa communications module herein depicted by cellular/network connections240. For example, a user could download the application from an onlineapplications website, or from one or more third parties that provideapplications. Alternatively, the client application can be received in afactory at the time of manufacture/provisioning of the portable device110 prior to purchase by the user.

Upon completion of the download process, the process 500 continues tostage 514, where an installation process is triggered, during which theclient application 264 is installed and registers itself as a systemservice with the operating system 262 of the portable device 110. Asystem service is a term of art describing an application that, uponbeing registered, can run persistently in the background and monitor theoperating system 262 for information regarding other events occurringsuch as the triggering events associated with receiving advertisements.The capabilities of a system service depend on the operating system 262.

In some embodiments, the client application 264 registers with theoperating system 262 as a listener for events of interest associatedwith user interactions with the portable device 110. The events ofinterest include triggering events indicative of a non-disruptive momentsuitable for display of an advertisement (e.g., termination of call,completion of outbound SMS, termination of specific application, etc.).As an example, the operating system 262 may provide a signal indicatingthat an application identified by a unique identifier has terminated. Incases where applications on the portable device 110 register with theclient application 264, the client application 264 uses the registrationinformation to identify exactly which application has terminated. Inthis way, the advertisements could be targeted to exactly whichapplication has terminated, or paused, etc. In some embodiments, theuser of the portable device 110 may be queried for permission to allowthe client application 264 to register as a listener for the events ofinterest. The permission could be an all or nothing permission where theuser is asked once for permission for an application to be a listenerand no further permission is needed. Alternatively, the query forpermission could be done periodically.

The installation of the client application 264 can be triggered by auser initiating the installation by actuating one of the input devices220 on the portable device. Upon installation and/or activation of theclient application, the process 500 continues to stage 518 where theclient application 264 determines the update status of the configurationparameters controlling the operation of the client application 264. Uponinitial installation and/or activation of the client application, theconfiguration parameters may be set to default parameter and may notneed updating at first. Alternatively, the configuration parameters maynot be set at all and may be in need of immediate updating.Configuration parameters can be stored with a date or version number inorder for the client application 264 to be able to determine the updatestatus based on a date or version number provided by the host system140, for example.

At decision block 522, the client application determines if theconfiguration parameters are current. If the client application 264 hasjust been installed and the configuration parameters have been set todefault values, it may determine at decision block 522 that theconfiguration parameters are current and not in need of updating. If theclient application 264 has been installed with no default configurationparameters, it is determined at decision block 522 that theconfiguration parameters are not current. In addition, the clientapplication 264 may be configured to update the configuration parametersperiodically and it may be determined at decision block 522 that theconfiguration parameters are not current based on a timer or a versionnumber.

If it is determined at decision block 522 that the configurationparameters are current, the process 500 continues to stage 530. If it isdetermined that the configuration parameters are not current, theprocess 500 continues to stage 526 where the client application 264communicates a request for updated configuration parameters to theoperating system 262 which then communicates the request to the hostsystem 140 via one of the network connections 240. In response to therequest, the host system 140 sends updated configuration parameters tothe portable device 110 which are received by the client application 264and stored in the memory 260.

The configuration parameters that are received at stage 526 define oneor more events that can trigger the client application 264 to request anadvertisement from the host system 140. In addition, the configurationparameters can define events that should not be interrupted bydisplaying an advertisement. The configuration parameters can also bedesigned to define the frequency that the client application 264 wakesup to perform monitoring of the operating system 262 in order topreserve battery life. Depending on the type of portable device, theconfiguration parameters could be based on the type of radio connectionand further tune the sleep mode/wakeup frequency. The configurationparameters can also include steps used by the client application 264 toremain running at all times, at least in a sleep mode, and steps toenable the client application 264 to restart itself when terminated.Configuration parameters can be customized according to devicemanufacturer/model, wireless carrier, geographical location, etc.Trigger events defined by the configuration parameters could depend onother equipment connected to the portable device 110. For example, thetrigger events could be associated with whether there is a keyboardavailable or whether there is a Bluetooth headset.

In addition, configuration parameters received at stage 526 can definewhich advertising source systems the client application should requestadvertisements from. The configuration parameters could define differentadvertising source systems depending on, for example, which applicationthe event is associated with, what type of event occurred, the time ofday, location, etc.

At stage 530, the client application 264 communicates a registrationmessage to the operating system 262 to be communicated to the hostsystem 140 via one of the network connections 240. The registrationmessage informs the host system 140 that the user has registered theportable device 110 and/or one or more applications to receiveadvertisements.

At stage 534, upon being activated and registered, the clientapplication 264 begins monitoring the operating system 262 for eventsignals indicating the occurrences of triggering events that can signalan opportunity to request and display an advertisement. The triggeringevents can be a termination of a user interaction with the portabledevice such that the user is not disturbed by an advertisement beingdisplayed. Such triggering events can include call termination, textmessage termination, application termination or pause, or any otherevent that signals that the user has completed some form of interactionwith the portable device 110. Upon receiving the event signal, theclient application 264 reads the event signal to determine what event isindicated to have occurred and queries for the current configurationparameters to determine if conditions are suitable for requesting anddisplaying an advertisement. In addition to terminating events such ascall termination, game termination, text message termination, a triggerevent could include non-terminating events such as a lock screen eventor a display screen going dark. The client application 264 can beconfigured such that advertisements that are requested to be displayedduring a lock screen or a dark screen even can be persistent and bedisplayed after the user actuates an input device to unlock or undarkenthe display screen.

When an event signal is detected at stage 534 by the client application264, the process 500 continues to decision block 538 where the clientapplication 264 determines if the indicated event is a trigger event,based on the current configuration parameters. If it is determined atdecision block 538 that the indicated event is not a trigger event, theprocess 500 returns to stage 534 where the client application 264continues to monitor the operating system 262 for event signals. If itis determined at decision block 538 that the indicated event is atrigger event, based on the current configuration parameters, theprocess continues to stage 542.

At stage 542, the client application 264 communicates an advertisementrequest message to the operating system 262 to be communicated to anadvertising source system, as determined by the configurationparameters, via one of the network connections 240. The advertisementrequest message can include the trigger event, the identifier of theportable device, the identity of the user, an identifier of theapplication associated with the event etc. At stage 546, the portabledevice 110 receives an advertisement selected by the advertising sourcesystem. The selected advertisement is received via one of the networkconnections 240. The advertisement can be received by leveragingwebservices over a data (IP) network using HTTP/S encapsulation of SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol) envelopes containing custom XML payloadsoptimized for brevity, or via any other available network transport anddata description protocols. SOAP is a protocol for exchanging structuredinformation in the implementation of web services.

When an advertisement is being received, in one embodiment, the clientapplication 264 avoids querying the host system 140 for newconfiguration parameters in order to reduce the amount of networktransit, and therefore time required for an advertisement to bedisplayed. This also reduces the amount of time that the radio is used,thereby saving power because the radio typically uses the most power inthe portable device 110.

Upon receiving the selected advertisement, the client application 264determines, at decision block 550, whether the selected advertisement issuitable for display based on the current configuration parameters.Reasons for an advertisement being unsuitable for display at the timethe advertisement is received can include, for example, when the triggerevent is closely followed by another event that is determined to beinappropriate to interrupt with an advertisement (e.g., a termination ofa text message or call closely following an initiation of another textmessage or call), a threshold number or count of advertisements havingbeen displayed within a threshold time period being exceeded, athreshold time period has not elapsed since the last advertisement wasdisplayed, a battery power level on the portable device 110 registersbelow a threshold value, etc. In addition, if no advertisement wereavailable from the advertising source system, there would also be nosuitable advertisement for display.

The user could define types of advertisements that should be blocked asbeing unsuitable. For example, a user could choose to blockadvertisements for dating websites, alcohol, or other classes ofadvertisements. These blocked classes of advertisements could be inputby the user at stage 518 in the form of configuration parameters.

If it is determined at decision block 550 that the selectedadvertisement is not suitable for display, the process can return tostage 534 to monitor for more trigger events indicated by event signalsor, alternatively, return to stage 542 to request another advertisement.If it is determined that the advertisement is suitable for display, theclient application 264 causes the selected advertisement to be renderedon a display of the portable device 110 at stage 554. At stage 558, theclient application 264 increments one or more advertisement counters,and in some embodiments stores a time the advertisement was rendered, inorder to limit the frequency that future advertisements are displayed.Multiple counters can be used in order to limit the number ofadvertisements displayed during different time periods such, forexample, a number per hour, a number per day, a number per week, etc. Atstage 562, the client application 264 causes the operating system 262 tocommunicate an indication that the selected advertisement was displayedto the host system 140 and/or the advertising source system via one ofthe network connections 240.

The process 500 repeats to perform the functions of the various stagesas discussed above. The process 500 is exemplary only and not limiting.The process 500 can be altered, e.g., by having stages added, removed orrearranged. Still other alterations to the process 500 as shown anddescribed are possible.

In the processes 400 and 500 discussed above, advertisements weredisplayed on the portable display device upon receiving trigger eventsignals from the operating system of the portable device 110. However,some operating systems do not provide sufficient signaling for all typesof user interaction and trigger events may not provide adequateindications as to when an advertisement should or should not bedisplayed to a user.

The Android® operating system uses Activities to transition withinportions of an application. In contrast to the triggering eventsdiscussed above, the Android® operating system does not provide a signalindicating that an Activity is terminating. In contrast, the methodsdiscussed below monitor lower level indicators in order to determinewhen an Activity is finishing.

As used herein, an Activity is an application component that provides ascreen with which users can interact in order to do something, such asdial the phone, take a photo, send an email, or view a map. EachActivity is given a window in which to draw its user interface. Thewindow typically fills the screen, but may be smaller than the screenand float on top of other windows. In contrast to an Activity, aservice, as discussed above, is a component that runs in the backgroundto perform long-running operations or to perform work for remoteprocesses. A service does not provide a user interface.

An application usually consists of multiple activities that are looselybound to each other. One Activity in an application is usually specifiedas the “main” Activity, which is presented to the user when launchingthe application for the first time. Each Activity can then start anotherActivity in order to perform different actions. Each time a new Activitystarts, the previous Activity is stopped, but the system preserves theActivity in a processing queue. When a new Activity starts, it is pushedonto the processing queue and takes user focus. The processing queueabides to a basic “last in, first out” queue mechanism, so, when theuser is done with the current Activity and presses the Back button, itis popped from the processing queue (and destroyed) and the previousActivity resumes.

FIG. 6A illustrates an exemplary process 600 for displaying anadvertisement on the portable device 110 in embodiments that include anActivity-based operating system such as Android®.

Typically, an Activity can be in one of four states:

Foreground—An Activity that is visible in the foreground and is running

Paused—An Activity that has lost focus but is still visible. A pausedActivity is alive, but can be killed by the system in low memorysituations.

Stopped—An Activity is completely obscured by another Activity and is nolonger visible to the user so its window is hidden. A stopped Activitymaintains all state information. A stopped Activity can be killed by thesystem when memory is needed elsewhere.

Dropped—An Activity that was either paused or stopped and was killed bythe system. A dropped Activity must be completely restarted in order tobe displayed again to the user.

The process 600 is concerned with determining when a Foreground Activitytransitions to Paused, Stopped or Dropped states. Activities cantransition away from the Foreground state as a result of normal softwaretransitions or because of user interaction. In most cases, transitionsfrom the Foreground state are public events. However, in some instances,an Activity can be transitioned away from due to user interaction andthe event is not a public event and is not easily detectable. Asdiscussed above, an Activity can be terminated when the user presses theHome button 222, the Back button 224 or by other means. When a userpresses the Home button 222 or the Back button 224, in the Android®operating system, there is not a standard way to know that this pressresulted in the user leaving the Activity. The process 600 uses astate-tracking methodology that is able to determine that an Activity isfinishing. In addition, the process 600 avoids displaying anadvertisement if another Activity is started and the user would beannoyed by an advertisement being displayed.

The Android® operating system presents another challenge to displayingadvertisements in a timely fashion. When a user hits the Home button 222on an Android® device, the Android® operating system forces any newActivities to incur a built-in delay of 5 seconds before the newActivity can be executed. This built-in 5-second delay results in anunacceptable user experience for displaying an advertisement. For thisreason, a novel process of displaying an advertisement on a phone thatuses the Android® operating system was developed. The process 600leverages Android® views that are created using the WindowManager classinstead of Activities for displaying advertisements. The views createdusing the WindowManager class are not subject to the built-in 5-seconddelay when a user presses the Home button 222. The process 600pre-fetches advertisements in order to display the advertisements in amore timely fashion when it is determined that an Activity is finishing.

When an application that utilizes Activities progresses, an Activitycould be transitioned away from for several reasons. An Activity couldbe caused to be transitioned away from by the user pressing the Homebutton 222, the user pressing the Back button 224, or the Activity beingtransitioned away from as part of the normal progression of anapplication. The process 600 determines when an Activity is finishing asopposed to an Activity merely being transitioned away from and returnedto the processing queue.

When a user causes an Activity to finish, or when normal transitionswithin the application cause an Activity to terminate or be returned tothe processing queue, the Android® operating system initiates atermination routine called onPause(). The call to this onPause() routinecan be used as an indicator that an Activity is being transitioned awayfrom. The onPause() routine is used by software developers to deal withsteps needed when a user is leaving an Activity or an Activity is atleast leaving visibility. The onPause() routine can be modified bysoftware developers to perform different functions when Activities areterminating. This modification is referred to as overriding theonPause() routine. The process 600 uses an overridden onPause() routineto initiate the advertising logic that determines whether it is a propertime to display the advertisement without annoying the user. OtherActivity termination indicators, besides the calling of the onPause()routine, can be used in the process 600. The process 600 is described asbeing performed by a client application, e.g., the client application264 discussed above.

At stage 605, the client application 264 receives an indication of astate transition of an Activity of an application program beingexecuted. The indication can be the initiation of the overriddenonPause() routine which is invoked when an Activity is beingtransitioned away from and leaving visibility on the display 250. Thetransitioning away from the Activity could be caused by the user of theportable device 110 pressing the Home button 222 or the Back button 224or by a software transition within the operating application. In theAndroid® operating system, any event causing an Activity to leavevisibility is accompanied by a call to the onPause() routine.

At stage 610, the client application 264 invokes an advertising controllogic routine in response to receiving the indication of the Activitybeing transitioned away from. In the case of the Android® operatingsystem, the overridden onPause() method is automatically invoked when anActivity is being transitioned away from. The cause of Activitytransition can be actions taken by the user or normal transitions withinthe application that is being executed.

One cause of Activity transition that can take place at stage 605 is thepress of the Home button 222 in the Android® operating system. TheAndroid® operating system does not generate a public event when the Homebutton 222 is pressed. Another cause of Activity transition in theAndroid® operating system is the press of the Back button 224. Thepressing of the Back button 224 is accompanied by an event signal, butthe Back button 224 event can be a misleading indicator that theActivity of an application is finishing. For example, a user may pressthe Back button 224 many times within the normal sequence of anapplication without causing the Activity, and hence the application, tofinish. Due to these subtleties, the handling of Tasks and Activities isof central importance to the proper functioning of the process 600. Inorder to be certain that the Activity of an application is finishing(exiting the application) upon the pressing of the Home button 222, theBack button 224 or transitioning to another Activity within the Task,the overridden onPause() method includes a call to a function within theadvertising SDK that invokes the advertising control logic that isperformed in stages 615, 620 and 625.

At decision block 615, the client application 264 determines if theActivity is finishing by invoking a routine named isFinishing(). TheisFinishing() routine interrogates an ActivityManager class (referred toherein as the ActivityManager) of the operating system to determine ifthe Activity is finishing or running in the background. If the onPause()method was invoked as a result of the user pressing the Back button 224,or due to a transition to another software routine, the Activity will bedetermined to be finishing. If, at decision block 615, the clientapplication 264 determines that the Activity is finishing, the clientapplication 264 causes a first advertising routine to be executed atstage 620.

In contrast to the pressing of the Back button 224 or a softwaretransition, the pressing of the Home button 222 does not cause anActivity to terminate, but instead puts the Activity in an idle state orrunning in background. Therefore, if the onPause() routine (or otherindication of a terminating Activity) was caused to be invoked by thepressing of the Home button 222, the isFinishing() routine willdetermine, at decision block 615, that the Activity is not finishing. Ifthe client application 264 (via the isFinishing() method) determinesthat the Activity is not finishing at stage 615, the client application264 submits a second advertising routine into the processing queue ofthe operating system at stage 625. The second advertising routine willbe executed subsequently when it reaches the top of the processingqueue.

The functions performed at stages 620 and 625 will now be described inreference to FIGS. 6B and 6C. In reference to FIG. 6B, the firstadvertising routine 620 includes the stages shown. At stage 630, theclient application 264 determines if a phone of the portable device 110is in use, e.g., due to a voice call, a video call, etc. being inprogress. If the phone is determined to be in use, the first advertisingroutine 620 is ended. If the phone is determined not to be in use, thefirst advertising routine 620 continues to stage 635.

At stage 635, the client application 264 determines if a new Activitywas launched and is waiting for a result. A common example of this wouldbe the launching of a camera application within a Task so as to obtainan image from the camera of the portable device 110. If it is determinedat stage 635 that a new Activity was launched, the first advertisingroutine 620 is ended. If it is determined that a new Activity was notlaunched, the first advertising routine 620 proceeds to stage 640.

At stage 640, the client application 264 determines if the display 250of the portable device 110 is locked. If it is determined at stage 635that the display 250 is locked, the first advertising routine 620 isended. If it is determined that the display 250 is not locked, the firstadvertising routine 620 proceeds to stage 645.

At stage 645, the client application 264 determines if the finishingActivity is the root Activity (i.e., the Foreground Activity). Theclient application 264 can do this by interrogating the ActivityManagerclass to determine the current list of Tasks and Activities. If it isdetermined at stage 645 that the finishing Activity is not the rootActivity, the first advertising routine 620 is ended. If it isdetermined that the finishing Activity is the root Activity, the firstadvertising routine 620 proceeds to stage 650 and displays theadvertisement on the display 250.

The stages shown in the first advertising routine 620 are exemplaryonly. In some embodiments, one or more of the stages shown in FIG. 6Bcan be omitted or rearranged. For example, if the portable device 110does not have a phone or equivalent, the stage 630 can be omitted. Insome embodiments, the first advertising routine 620 can be modified toinclude any one of the decision blocks 630, 635, 640 and 645, any two ofthe decision blocks 630, 635, 640 and 645, or any three of the decisionblocks 630, 635, 640 and 645.

Referring now to FIG. 6C, the second advertising routine 625 includesthe stages shown. As discussed above, the second advertising routine 625is submitted into the queue of the operating system as a result of theHome button 222 being pressed. At stage 655, the client application 264determines if a phone of the portable device 110 is in use, e.g., due toa voice call, a video call, etc. being in progress. If the phone isdetermined to be in use, the second advertising routine 625 is ended. Ifthe phone is determined not to be in use, the second advertising routine625 continues to stage 660.

At stage 660, the client application 264 determines if a new Activitywas launched and is waiting for a result. If it is determined at stage660 that a new Activity was launched, the second advertising routine 625is ended. If it is determined that a new Activity was not launched, thesecond advertising routine 625 proceeds to stage 665.

At stage 665, the client application 264 determines if the display 250of the portable device 110 is locked. If it is determined at stage 665that the display 250 is locked, the second advertising routine 625 isended. If it is determined that the display 250 is not locked, thesecond advertising routine 625 proceeds to stage 670.

At stage 670, the client application 264 determines if the Activity isin the background (in the Paused or Stopped state). The clientapplication 264 can do this by interrogating the ActivityManager classto determine the current list of Tasks and Activities. If it isdetermined at stage 670 that the Activity is not in the background, thesecond advertising routine 625 is ended. If it is determined that theActivity is in the background, the second advertising routine 620proceeds to stage 675 and displays the advertisement on the display 250.

The stages shown in the second advertising routine 625 are exemplaryonly. In some embodiments, one or more of the stages shown in FIG. 6Bcan be omitted or rearranged. In some embodiments, the secondadvertising routine 625 can be modified to include any one of thedecision blocks 630, 635, 640 and 645, any two of the decision blocks630, 635, 640 and 645, or any three of the decision blocks 630, 635, 640and 645.

As was discussed above, one impediment to a suitable user experiencewith the Android® operating system is the 5-second delay that isenforced upon Activity launches after the Home button 222 has beenpressed. To work around this, a display technique referred to herein asan “Activity-backed Overlay” was devised. The Activity-backed Overlayleverages the Android® WindowManager class addView(), removeView(), andupdateViewLayout() methods to arbitrarily paint Android® View containers(which can hold images, video, web content, etc.) on the display 250. Asopposed to an Activity being a task management facility, theWindowManager class functions are a view management facility.Simultaneous to painting one of these Views, the Activity-backed Overlaytechnique invokes an Activity behind the View on the z-axis of thedisplay 250.

The “backing” Activity is subject to the standard 5-second delay, butthe View is not, this enables the technique to display all content(e.g., advertising text, video, audio, etc.) capable of functioningproperly without an Activity in the View. When necessary, focus canswitch to the Activity. Furthermore, having this z-axis Activity inplace enables the Activity-backed Overlay technique to interceptsubsequent presses of the Home button 222 and to monitor for transitionsto other Activities or Tasks via the Android® operating system's variousnavigation mechanisms, thus enabling the Activity-backed Overlaytechnique to remove the View and Activity from the display. In oneembodiment, the painting of the View, and the initiation and terminationof the View and the Activity is done using Android® WindowManager classfunctions. The use of the WindowManager class functions requires manualimplementation and control of functions that are provided automaticallywhen using Activities, e.g., functionality pertinent to orientationcontrol, video rendering, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 7, an example process 700 includes the stagesshown. The process 700 is an example of the Activity-backed Overlaytechnique used to display advertisements on the Android® operatingsystem. The process 700 can be used at stages 650 and 675 of the firstand second advertising routines 620 and 625, respectively.

The process 700 is invoked when it has been determined using the process600 discussed above (including the first and second advertising routines620 and 625) that it is a proper time to display an advertisement. Atstage 705, the client application 264 simultaneously (or nearlysimultaneously) paints a View on the display 250 and invokes a z-axisActivity behind the View. The addView() method of the WindowManager isused to paint the View. The View does not include an Activity so theView is not delayed by the Android® operating system subsequent to apressing of the Home button 222.

At stage 710, the Android® operating system delays the launching of thez-axis Activity, but the View containing the advertisement is notdelayed. At stage 715, the client application 264 monitors forsubsequent activations of the Home button 222 and other indications oftransitions to other activities. This is accomplished using theActivityManager class.

At stage 720, the client application determines if the Home button 222was activated a second time or another transition was detected. Thissecond Home button 222 activation is subsequent to the Home button 222press that resulted in the second advertising routine 625 being invoked.This is done to ensure that the operating system does not get hung-up inlimbo. If a positive detection occurs at stage 720, the process 700proceeds to stage 725 where the client application removes both the Viewand the z-axis Activity. This is done because it would be inappropriateto continue to display the advertisement when the user is invoking otherActivities or Tasks. If no Home button 222 press or other transition isdetected at stage 720, the process 700 loops back to stage 715 where theclient application continues to monitor for Home button 222 activationand other transitions.

During the 5 second delay, nothing is monitoring for home buttonpresses. During this delay period, the Home button 222 does notfunction. The Android® operating system prevents any Activity from beingexecuted during this 5 second delay period. The Back button 224 retainsfunctionality during the 5 second delay period. Activation of the Backbutton 224 will cause the advertisement to be exited. In someembodiments, the View includes a soft-button and the user can exit theadvertisement by pressing the soft button. The Home button 222 will notwork until the z-axis Activity launches. After the 5-second delay hasexpired, the z-axis Activity is launched and the z-axis Activityperforms the monitoring at stage 715.

In addition to monitoring for Home button 222 presses and othertransitions at stage 715, the z-axis Activity also monitors for userinteraction with the View advertisement. If the user interacts with theView (e.g., requests more information, downloads images, videos, etc.),the z-axis Activity detects these interactions and invokes theappropriate routines. The z-axis Activity can be configured to terminateitself and the View after a pre-determined period of time.

The process 700 is exemplary only and other process can include morestages, omit stages and perform the stage in different orders.

It is noted that in various embodiments the present invention may relateto processes such as are described or illustrated herein and/or in therelated applications. These processes may be implemented on the hostsystem 140 on one or more host system servers 370 by one or more hostsystem applications 364, as well as one or more portable devices 110 byone or more client applications 264. These processes are typicallyimplemented in one or more modules comprising systems as describedherein and/or in the related applications, and such modules may includecomputer software stored on a computer readable medium includinginstructions configured to be executed by one or more processors. It isfurther noted that, while the processes described and illustrated hereinand/or in the related applications may include particular stages, it isapparent that other processes including fewer, more, or different stagesthan those described and shown are also within the spirit and scope ofthe present invention. Accordingly, the processes shown herein and inthe related applications are provided for purposes of illustration, notlimitation.

As noted, some embodiments of the present invention may include computersoftware and/or computer hardware/software combinations configured toimplement one or more processes or functions associated with the presentinvention such as those described above and/or in the relatedapplications. These embodiments may be in the form of modulesimplementing functionality in software and/or hardware/softwarecombinations. Embodiments may also take the form of a computer storageproduct with a computer-readable medium having computer code thereon forperforming various computer-implemented operations, such as operationsrelated to functionality as described herein. The media and computercode may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes ofthe present invention, or they may be of the kind well known andavailable to those having skill in the computer software arts, or theymay be a combination of both.

Examples of computer-readable media within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention include, but are not limited to: magnetic media suchas hard disks; optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and holographicdevices; magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and execute program code, such as programmablemicrocontrollers, application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”),programmable logic devices (“PLDs”) and ROM and RAM devices. Examples ofcomputer code may include machine code, such as produced by a compiler,and files containing higher-level code that are executed by a computerusing an interpreter. Computer code may be comprised of one or moremodules executing a particular process or processes to provide usefulresults, and the modules may communicate with one another via meansknown in the art. For example, some embodiments of the invention may beimplemented using assembly language, Java, C, C#, C++, or otherprogramming languages and software development tools as are known in theart. Other embodiments of the invention may be implemented in hardwiredcircuitry in place of, or in combination with, machine-executablesoftware instructions.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specificnomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specificdetails are not required in order to practice the invention. Thus, theforegoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention arepresented for purposes of illustration and description. They are notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed; obviously, many modifications and variations are possible inview of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and describedin order to best explain the principles of the invention and itspractical applications, they thereby enable others skilled in the art tobest utilize the invention and various embodiments with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It isintended that the following claims and their equivalents define thescope of the invention.

1. A method of displaying an advertisement on a display screen of acommunication device, the communication device including a processor anda memory including program code, the method comprising: monitoringexecution of an operating system of the communication device; receiving,pursuant to the monitoring, an indication of occurrence of an operatingsystem event wherein the operating system event is indicative of a statetransition of a first activity of the operating system, the firstactivity being associated with an application program being executed onthe processor; and executing, by the processor and in response to theindication, the program code in order to: determine whether the firstactivity is finishing; and display, upon determining the first activityis finishing, the advertisement upon determining that at least one ofthe following conditions exists: a second activity of the operatingsystem is not being invoked, the communication device is not involved ina call, the display screen is not locked, and the first activity is aroot activity or is in a background state.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein the program code includes code for, upon determining the firstactivity is not finishing, submitting an advertisement display routineinto a processing queue for subsequent execution by the processor. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the advertisement comprises:invoking a third activity, wherein execution of the third activity isdelayed by an operating system subsequent to activation of a Homebutton; and painting a view on the display screen, wherein painting theview is not delayed by the operating system subsequent to activation ofthe Home button.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the view comprisescontent of the advertisement.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein thethird activity is invoked behind the view on a z-axis normal to thedisplay screen.
 6. The method of claim 3, further comprising: subsequentto invoking the third activity and painting the view, detecting at leastone of an activation of the Home button and a transition to anotheractivity; and upon detecting the activation of the Home button or thetransition to the another activity, removing the view and terminatingthe third activity.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein, the indication isan initiation of a termination routine when the first activity is beingtransitioned away from.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein thetermination routine is an overridden termination routine.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the processor displays the advertisement upondetermining that at least two of the following conditions exist: thesecond activity is not being invoked, the communication device is notinvolved in the call, the display screen is not locked, and the firstactivity is the root activity or is in the background state.
 10. Acommunication device comprising: a processor; a display screen; and amemory coupled to the processor, the memory containing program codewhich, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to: monitorexecution of an operating system of the communication device in order todetect one or more operating system events; receive an indication ofoccurrence of an operating system event included among the one or moreoperating system events wherein the operating system event is indicativeof a state transition of a first activity of the operating system, thefirst activity being associated with an application program beingexecuted on the processor; execute, in response to the indication, theprogram code in order to: determine whether the first activity isfinishing; and display, upon determining the first activity isfinishing, the advertisement upon determining that at least one of thefollowing conditions exists: a second activity of the operating systemis not being invoked, the communication device is not involved in acall, the display screen is not locked, and the first activity is a rootactivity or is in a background state.
 11. The communication device ofclaim 10 wherein the program code includes code for causing theprocessor to, upon determining the first activity is not finishing,submit an advertisement display routine into a processing queue forsubsequent execution by the processor.
 12. The communication device ofclaim 10, wherein the program code causes the processor to display theadvertisement by: invoking a third activity, wherein execution of thethird activity is delayed by an operating system subsequent toactivation of a Home button; and painting a view on the display, whereinpainting the view is not delayed by the operating system subsequent toactivation of the Home button.
 13. The communication device of claim 12,wherein the view comprises content of the advertisement.
 14. Thecommunication device of claim 12, wherein the third activity is invokedbehind the view on a z-axis normal to the display screen.
 15. Thecommunication device of claim 12, wherein the program code furthercauses the processor to: subsequent to invoking the third activity andpainting the view, detect at least one of an activation of the Homebutton and a transition to another activity; and upon detecting theactivation of the Home button or the transition to the another activity,remove the view and terminate the third activity.
 16. The communicationdevice of claim 10, wherein, the indication is an initiation of atermination routine when an activity is being transitioned away from.17. The communication device of claim 16, wherein the terminationroutine is overridden termination routine.
 18. The communication deviceof claim 10, wherein the processor displays the advertisement upondetermining that at least two of the following conditions exists: thesecond activity is not being invoked, the communication device is notinvolved in the call, the display screen is not locked, and the firstactivity is the root activity or is in the background state.
 19. Anon-transient computer readable medium storing program code which, whenexecuted by a processor, causes the processor to: monitor execution ofan operating system of the communication device in order to detect oneor more operating system events; receive an indication of occurrence ofan operating system event included among the one or more operatingsystem events wherein the operating system event is indicative of astate transition of a first activity of the operating system, the firstactivity being associated with an application program being executed onthe processor; and execute, in response to the indication, the programcode in order to: determine whether the first activity is finishing; anddisplay, upon determining the first activity is finishing, theadvertisement upon determining that at least one of the followingconditions exists: a second Activity of the operating system is notbeing invoked, the communication device is not involved in a call, thedisplay screen is not locked, and the first activity is a root activityor is in a background state.
 20. The non-transient computer readablemedium of claim 19 wherein the program code includes code for causingthe processor to, upon determining the first activity is not finishing,submit an advertisement display routine into a processing queue forsubsequent execution by the processor.
 21. The non-transient computerreadable medium of claim 19, wherein the program code further causes theprocessor to display the advertisement by: invoking a third activity,wherein execution of the third activity is delayed by an operatingsystem subsequent to activation of a Home button; and causing a view tobe painted on the display, wherein the painting of the view is notdelayed by the operating system subsequent to activation of the Homebutton.
 22. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 21,wherein the view comprises content of the advertisement.
 23. Thenon-transient computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the thirdactivity is invoked behind the view on a z-axis normal to the displayscreen.
 24. The non-transient computer readable medium of claim 21,wherein the program code further causes the processor to: subsequent toinvoking the third activity and causing the view to be painted, detectat least one of an activation of the Home button and a transition toanother activity; and upon detecting the activation of the Home buttonor the transition to the another activity, cause the view to be removedfrom the display and terminate the third activity.
 25. The non-transientcomputer readable medium of claim 19, wherein, the indication is aninitiation of a termination routine when the first activity is beingtransitioned away from.
 26. The non-transient computer readable mediumof claim 25, wherein the termination routine is an overriddentermination routine.
 27. A non-transitory computer readable mediumstoring computer program code for implementing a method of displaying anadvertisement on a communication device, the communication deviceincluding a processor and a user interface, the computer program codecomprising: program code for monitoring execution of an operating systemof the communication device; program code for receiving, based upon themonitoring, an indication of occurrence of an operating system eventincluded among the one or more operating system events wherein theoperating system event is indicative of a state transition of a firstactivity of the operating system, the first activity being associatedwith an application program being executed on the processor; programcode for determining whether the activity is finishing; and program codefor initiating, based upon the determining, display of the advertisementupon the user interface provided that a state of the activity and astate of the communication device are characterized by one or morepredetermined conditions.
 28. The non-transitory computer readablemedium of claim 27 wherein the program code further includes programcode for submitting an advertisement display routine to a processingqueue for subsequent execution upon determining the activity is notfinishing.
 29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27,wherein the predetermined conditions comprise at least one of: anotheractivity of the application program is not being invoked, thecommunication device is not involved in a call, a display screen is notlocked, and the first activity is a root activity or is in a backgroundstate.
 30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27,wherein the computer program code further includes program code for:invoking another activity, wherein execution of the another activity isdelayed by an operating system subsequent to activation of a Homebutton; and initiating display of a view upon the user interface,wherein the display of the view is not delayed by the operating systemsubsequent to activation of the Home button.